Over the last way too long, I’ve been working on redesigning my website, TwoWordHeap.com. This has been a monumental task for me; mostly due to my utter lack of skill as both a web designer and developer. Though teaching myself the inner workings of WordPress and general web development is quite difficult, conceiving the overall design (colour palettes, font usage, layout, etc) has been grueling. What has really got me stumped, and has since Grant and I created Two Word Heap, is the design of the Two Word Heap logo and text. This has always been a big deal to me and, as a consequence, it’s been difficult for me to settle on a design or idea.
The logo has never really gotten anywhere. It started out as a pile of “two word” and that’s about as far as it’s gotten. I may explore this idea more and put my graphic design skills to the test. I wouldn’t mind seeing a 3D heap of words…
As for the text design, there have been numerous ideas. In April 2007, I came up with the first idea I actually liked.
I really enjoyed the concept. The lettering was neat and the layout (Two Word on top of Heap) was terrific. But it lacked something…
In June 2007, I decided to add some colour to the design.
To date, this is probably the most appropriate design. However, it looks rather messy and quite amateur. The concept is certainly spot on, though…
November 2007 rolled around and I decided to try a more rectangular style.
This approach was more fitting for the website as I prefer a shorter header space. This layout took up more horizontal space and fit the header quite nicely. Though, in showing this design to various people, I learned that the first thing they saw was “wow”. I had to mention that my site was called Two Word Heap before they could actually see it.
In December 2007, I revised.
I tried to create more word distinction by including a much stronger leading “T” and keeping the “w” and “o” smaller than the leading “W” in “word”. I also decided to drop the stenciled “D” as it was too prominent. I’m not sure what motivated me to lose the brown outline…
Nearly 5 months later, I’ve decided to change things up yet again. Here are some problems I had with this design:
Nothing “eye-catching”
No colour
Too messy
Not very scalable (smaller, mostly)
So with the new idea, I’ve added colour, made it simpler and took
away any “effects” that the design may rely on for impact.
These colours are actually straight from the palette I’ve been using for the site redesign.
One big advantage this design has over the others is its ability to abbreviate rather well…
Here is another random character version.
This is spiffy due to its sidewalk-chalk nature.
So this is about as far as I’ve gotten. I plan to mess with the old, horizontal design and try to incorporate some of the concepts from the newest design (simplicity, colour, etc.).
If anybody who happens to reads this has any ideas/suggestions/comments, please feel free to have your say.
If anyone actually comes here looking for up-to-date information on the glorious me, they’ve probably found out that I post here rather infrequently. I apologize. My time, especially lately, has been used for too many things that take priority over maintaining this blog. It’s unfortunate, but just the way it goes. I hope, in the coming month or so, to start keeping this blog current and relevant. But because of the nature of my main endeavour, TwoWordHeap.com, I won’t be posting film reviews or probably even lyrics or songs here anymore. No big loss as this type of stuff will simply be found at TWH instead.
As for actual news in my life, Kym and I found ourselves a sweet new basement suite (sweet) to live in. It’s a 2 bedroom suite found in a neighbourhood called “Cedarbrae”.
That gives you an idea where it’s at. For those of you not familiar with Calgary, sorry. You’re left out.
But here are some picture of what the inside looks like. Since we don’t take possession until March 1st, it’s still very empty.
As one or two of you may notice, this place is quite large compared to our current 400 sf. 1 bedroom apartment downtown. Our current location is fantastic but the space is just far too small. With this new place, I’ll actually have my very own office! I get a space for myself so I can move freely and work, uninhibited.
A big issue for Kym and I is cleanliness, and we view moving into this new place a chance to start fresh. The problem with our current situation is the utter lack of space; nothing really has a home. So we have clothes, DVDs, newspapers, boardgames, and various Christmas gifts still strewn around our living room and bedroom. With more space, there’s the opportunity to give not only everything we now own a home but to anticipate new items coming into our home and give them a proper space to go. Simple idea, but a significant change for us.
So aside from this big change, I’ve been busy with 2 major projects. The first, is a complete redesign for TwoWordHeap.com. Right from its inception, Two Word Heap was meant as an online magazine of sorts, but the actual design of the site never really reflected that.
As it is right now, TWH looks like a blog. Personally, I think that sucks. So what I intend to do is restructure The Heap as more of an actual online magazine. The idea is to release the magazine weekly, with featured articles and whatnot, but maintain several daily sections including Loot and various time-sensitive articles. The visual structure of the site will change as well. I want to clearly define the different sections and move away from trying to give every visitor everything we have to offer. By currently listing all the newest articles on the main page in chronological order, each section/category gets mixed together and we lose readers who may only be interested in one or two topics we write about. I’d like to separate each section and display them individually on the main page in order to give readers choice and, ultimately, more mobility through the site.
This is all fine and dandy except I’m very limited in my skills as both a web designer and developer. I use WordPress as the back-end for not only this site but TWH as well. Recently, I’ve been introduced to the site of Adriaan Pienaar (better known as Adii - WordPress Rockstar) and his Premium Themes for WordPress. Boy oh boy is this guy good. He’s developed several themes intended for use on news and magazine-like sites. I’ve purchased one of his themes and a now unavailable subscription option to receive everynew theme he releases for the next year. That puts my total count of Premium News Themes at 3 so far. The tools now available to me through picking apart these themes is has grown exponetially as he uses many new techniques and technologies.
On his personal blog, adii.co.za, he held a little competition for best suggestions for his 2 most recently released themes. I managed to win myself a signed copy of WordPress for Dummies, sent to me straight from South Africa.
Thank you, Adii! This book will inevitably offer me guidance in my quest to release the best damn online magazine in the known universe. Well, admitted by even Adii himself, this book may just tell me plenty of what I already know. But I’m confident it’ll point out various tidbits of priceless information I haven’t stumbled upon before. I’m excited to see what it has to provide.
The second project of mine that’s been eating up all my time is the debut album of my friend, Dan Besuijen. I’ve offered to mix and master his entire album!
Here is a rough mix of a song of his called “Slow Poke”. There are no vocals in this version.
I’ve always wanted to get my hands dirty with “real” recordings, and this comes as an opportunity for me to do so. I’m truly quite proud of him because just listening to what he’s recorded, I can tell he has really put a ton of effort into making one hell of a sweet album. I’ve been a fan of his for quite some time and to work on this with him is quite the honour.
I just need to get it done.
I’ve been sorta jumping back and forth between work on Dan’s album and TWH’s redesign. So far, I’ve only just begun preliminary mixing on only a few of Dan’s songs and redesigns for TWH are mostly just on paper. What I’d like to do, once I have my office set up, is to set a deadline for both projects, to create some real motivation to work my ass off. Getting these two massive projects done would really lift a weight off my shoulders and, quite frankly, make me quite proud of myself. As ideas flow for TWH, I’m confident we can really make something of it and as Dan’s album puts itself together, I expect it to blow people away.
As both projects progress, I’ll be posting updates here for all of you fine people. I’ve been quite surprised, in fact, by the steady (albeit low) traffic to this site. Even without me updating it on a regular basis, you still seem to be interested. Thank you!
Last Sunday, Kym and I spoiled ourselves for this first time in a long time… We went to the ZOO!!!
I’m just going to say right now that I’m not one, when put in a situation where I had to decide what to do on a day full of possibilities, to decide to go to the zoo. BUT! That doesn’t mean the zoo isn’t fun. AND! Going to the zoo with Kym made it even more fun than the zoo could be otherwise.
Since going to the zoo is more about the sights rather than the sounds, I’ll provide pictures.
Everyone is a bit quirky, in their own little way; we all have our fears and habits. I don’t consider myself a terribly quirky individual (who does?) but I have noticed one curiosity about myself that has me scratching my head…
I own a car. I have for several years, in fact. And, as I’m sure everyone knows, cars get messy. I manage to collect a plethora of trash in just a few days and periodically have to clean things out. But when I grab a handful of litter from my automobile and hover it over a dumpster or trashcan, something goes awry: I get butterflies in my stomach and a strong feeling of doing something wrong. Weird!
I believe the fear to be of throwing something of importance away, as though I accidentally grabbed my wallet or vehicle insurance along with my bottles and gum wrappers. Along with plenty of you, I’d deem this a reasonable fear. What’s crazy about it is I always have that fear, even with the assurance that nothing important is in my hand AND with the knowledge of my strange fear itself. Although I don’t consider this a serious problem, nothing has helped.
I have no real conclusion to this; just thought I’d let you all know.
Name: Tyler Hauser Date of Birth: July 21, 1984 Place of Birth: Camrose, AB Current Location: Calgary, AB Eye Colour: Hazel Hair Colour: Brown Height: 6'1"
